Just One Backyard ― One Man's Search for Food Sustainability

Just One Backyard: One Man’s Search for Food Sustainability is an entertaining and enlightening tale of how Dr. Zahina-Ramos turned his urban residential backyard into a research study to measure the many benefits of urban agriculture. This is no dry lecture based on puffed-up rhetoric. Dr. Z has skillfully accomplished one of the most difficult challenges- weaving heartwarming storytelling and scientific facts together in a way that even a novice can appreciate and enjoy. The first half of the book takes the reader on a thoughtfully told journey through the history of food growing, from ancient times through the 21th century, carefully describing how our food supply has become dominated by an industrialized production system that is dependent on unsustainable practices and harms the environment. By drawing upon historical fact, his family’s experiences and stories told to him by food gardeners around the world, its eloquent message remains fresh right up to the end. The second half of the book gets down to the nitty-gritty of what sustainable urban food growing is and the numerous benefits it can give. Several chapters describe the social, environmental, ecological and economic benefits of urban agriculture in a way that has never been possible before- with hard numbers, rather than broad generalizations. Even though the current unsustainable food system is fraught with problems, Dr. Z lays out solutions that can provide for the needs of the 21st century. The result is inspirational and empowering. This timeless work is destined to become the foremost book on the benefits from and necessity of urban food growing.